Opponents decry Mesa Public Schools transgender notification proposal

Yahoo

14-04-2025

An overwhelming number of students, teachers, parents and community members sounded off last week against Mesa Public Schools' proposed 'Gender Dysphoria Policy,' contending that it targets and harms transgender students.
Governing board member and retired teacher Sharon Benson proposed the policy, which includes notifying parents if their students ask to go by a pronoun or name different from their biological sex and requiring students participate in activities or facility use, such as bathrooms, that align with their sex at birth.
After hearing from the public, the board directed the policy be sent to an outside counsel for review before taking action. Approximately 80 people spoke at the April 8 meeting, most on the proposed policy, and were limited to 45 seconds each.
'I'm a transgender man and have been out to my mother for several years now,' said Noah White, a high school junior. 'When I came out to my mother and I spoke to my then-principal, we were welcomed with open arms. My principal helped me to feel comfortable and safe.
'But the proposed policies today aim to make students like me feel unsafe, unwelcome and unsupported. Transgender students need to feel safe, respected and supported in their educational environments to thrive. School should be a place where students feel affirmed in their identities not a source of fear or shame.'
White said that the forced parental notifications put students at risk for rejection and even homelessness.
The district's current guidelines aim to ensure transgender and gender-nonconforming students are in a safe learning environment free from discrimination and harassment.
Guidelines include that students have the right to be addressed by the name or pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity and that school personnel use that name and appropriate pronoun.
Also, these students are allowed to participate in sports and use restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities in accordance to their gender identity. The guidelines also prohibit the disclosure of a student's transgender or gender nonconforming status to other employees, students and parents.
Julia Gray, a Westwood High School senior, said the proposal would create distrust between students and teachers.
Cinthia Alaniz, who has five kids in district schools, said that outing students without their consent puts them at risk for abuse, homelessness and even suicide.
'I'm the stepparent of a transgender youth who graduated from Westwood High School in 2023,' said Jessica Gronberg. 'My son is transgender because that's who he is…And I'm extremely grateful that he was able to use his pronouns that he wanted to use and his name that he wanted to use and go into the bathrooms that he wanted to use while he was a student.'
District special education teacher Graham Corp called the policy 'garbage.'
He noted that state school chief Tom Horne called absenteeism the biggest crisis facing Arizona public schools 'and your idea is 'Oh, I'm going to invent a policy that ensures these students are never going to show up to school again.' That's insane. Do not feel bad about rejecting garbage policy.'
Mesa business owner Gabe Hage said, 'I was forcibly outed at 16 living in conservative Iowa. I came home to my family, who beat me in the basement. This is the reality you are trying to enact through policy.'
Sarah Hernandez Meaney said her daughter was a year away from graduating with a degree in education and would prefer to teach out of state than in Arizona because of policies such as the one being proposed.
'So we are currently driving away teachers with things like this,' she said. 'Nothing in this policy moves the board any closer to its stated 2020-2425 goals. It's an insult to students. it's a waste of everybody's time to be down here to speak against policies like this.'
Colton Cagle, who graduated from Westwood, said, 'People like Sharon Benson want you to believe that gender-nonconforming students are committing harm in schools.
'But in reality, these are fear-mongering tactics that use hateful rhetoric to spread lies. The reason I know this is because when I was in high school a few years ago, I had a classmate who was gender non-conforming. This student went by their preferred name and pronouns. And you want to know what happened? Nothing. We were all fine.'
State Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, who called herself the first non-binary legislator in the state, also lashed out against the proposal.
'From the mouths of our students, they love living here but they feel unsafe, unloved and unsupported by this policy that is being proposed,' Austin said.
'I have been to many of our schools in the district and I'm so proud that we currently do not have a trans student policy because Mesa Public Schools meets our students where they are at and I will always meet our students and families where they are at.'
A handful of speakers, like Jeff Thompson, however, supported the proposal.
'This pronoun stuff it's just senseless,' said Thompson, stressing he is not homophobic.
He said that the district has an anti-bullying policy to protect all students and that the district 'needs to get back to just teaching the kids.'
'You've already proved you can't do that at 32% proficiency rate,' Thompson said, adding his support for parents to be informed.
'Parents who are responsible for their children have the liberty to raise them in their beliefs, to care for them and to know what's going on with them,' Mary Baybeno said.
'The unit of society is not between teachers and a child. It's between parents and a child, which supersedes any relationship a teacher may have with a child. If parents want to accommodate a child's belief they are not a boy or girl, that's their choice.'
Ed Steele, who ran for the board last year, said that people opposed to the policy are saying that schools know better about how to raise a child than the child's parents.
'Folks who are opposing this policy are giving you a choice between hiding a student's mental health issues from their parents or kids dying,' Steele said. 'That's a ridiculous comparison. This policy is just trying to tell the parents when the child has emotional distress.'
Dr. Leigh Anne Castanzo said that gender dysphoria is a diagnosis that needs to be evaluated by a physician and if parents don't know their children are in distress, they are unable to get them the appropriate care.
And Jared Hieger called the opposition 'a three-ring circus sponsored by the teachers' union.'
'Ninety percent of the people that spoke out against it have no idea what's in it,' he claimed. 'Somebody came up here said a little while ago that trans students or queer students are 40% more likely to commit suicide. And that is correct. They are because they're miserable, because they're being taught a lie….It's not love to accept them as who they believe they are.'
'And if you are allowing your kid to believe this lie and condoning this lie, you are an agent of the devil.'
Benson said parents have the right to raise their children the way they see fit without government interference. She said that the courts have over time affirmed that parents are assumed to be the best caretakers for their children unless proven to be unfit and that she campaigned in support of parental rights. She won her seat in November.
'We heard this evening during public comment that there are homes which are unsafe for students who are outed to their parents,' Benson said. 'That is not our call to make as teachers. I am not advocating the mistreatment of anybody. Our bullying policy takes care of that.'
'My intent in this policy is not that any student on any of our campuses be harmed, belittled (or) berated,' she said. 'It is also to push the notion or establish the notion that one person's rights cannot infringe on the rights of another.'
She said she can appreciate a 'gender-confused student' who wants to be called by another name or pronoun and that there was no prohibition against that in her proposal.
'If you feel it's respectful to use pronouns, nothing in this policy says you can't do it as long as parents are informed and they know what's happening on our campuses,' Benson said.
Board member Marci Hutchinson, also a retired educator, voiced concerns with the policy.
She said that the legal definitions included in the proposal 'are not accurate or factual or even medically sound.'
'The policy was called gender dysphoria and that trans folks are confused,' Hutchinson said. 'As we have seen tonight, many people have embraced their identity and many love them for it.'
She also raised concerns with the provision that the district can't compel employees and students to use their preferred name or pronoun and that not doing so would not be considered discrimination or bullying, which she said conflicts with the district's policy on bullying.
'I believe our current policy is one of respect and clearly it is working,' Hutchinson. who got her colleagues to agree for an outside review prior to a vote.
'Having been a teacher and having known staff in Mesa Public Schools for 28 years, this district is about respect. And when we lose the respect for kids and their families I really worry about us being able to keep our promise to this community to know kids by their name and to serve them by strength and need.'